Recap: Lisk At Blockchain Week Berlin

by imperatorliskus ·
Published September 13, 2019
· Updated September 15, 2019

The Third Edition of Blockchain Week Berlin took place in Berlin from August 18, 2019 to August 29, 2019. This event was four times larger than last year’s, featuring four major conferences and more than 60 satellite events. Its singular goal of promoting education around blockchain technology, therefore, came into greater focus. In the days and weeks leading up to this event organized by entrepreneurs, scientists, developers, and blockchain enthusiasts, Lisk showcased its growing pedigree. By the time it was over, representatives of Lisk had attended or organized ten events.

The first Lisk SDK Webinar ever hosted by Lisk took place on the 9th of August. In that event, Tech Evangelist Rachel presented the Lisk SDK – the alpha version of the blockchain building toolkit. She showed us how to bootstrap a blockchain locally on a PC and then demonstrated how to create a custom transaction by dissecting the Cashback Transaction. The event ended with Nazar holding a short Q&A session where he entertained questions about the Cashback Transaction and Custom Transactions in general.

In the following weeks several proof-of-concept blockchain applications were teased by delegates and members of the developer community on the Discord channels. Then, on August 21st, Lisk HQ introduced it’s own internal PoC application using the SDK. Michiel Mulders wrote the official Lisk Bills walkthrough on the blog some days earlier. In the webinar, Muilders, Rachel, But Stanislav, and Lucas Silvestre showcased the invoicing application. They illustrated how to extend the Base Transaction and the Transfer Transaction creating two new custom transactions in the process.

A short Q&A rounded out the event and touched on the difference between custom transactions and smart contracts. Rachel teased several internal applications currently in the pipeline. That same day, as part of Lisk’s Usability Testing Fortnightly Usability Sessions, the company hosted Berlin-based Usability Testessen’s monthly event. The event took place at Lisk’s Atrium Tower Offices. Three stations for Lisk Hub and three for Lisk Mobile were tested by six participants. This test revealed some issues that have now been logged for fixing. Some improvements have been made.

At the tail end of Blockchain Week, Lisk hosted a workshop that took a deep dive into the Lisk SDK. It was organized into two sections. First, the overview section featured Rachel Black whose presentation included an introduction to the SDK with a focus on onboarding the new developers. After that, focus shifted to the SDK‘s capabilities. The Cashback Transaction was the first example presented to illustrate custom transactions and later on, the developers took a closer look at Lisk Bills – the first PoC blockchain application developed by Lisk. The participants then worked with the Cashback Transaction.

Participants who not only successfully completed the tutorial but also gave feedback based on their experience with the SDK, got tickets to Codemotion Conference. Given the success of the workshop, Lisk HQ has promised to organise more of them in the coming months. Upcoming events will be posted on the Lisk Events page. Aside from hosting events, Lisk Ambassadors have been involved in Speaking Events. One of these took place on the August 20, when Ali, Head of Design, and Julian, Head of User Interfaces, presented Lisk Design Thinking at a UI/UX designers meet up.

After discussing five specific design challenges, they hinted at Usability and testing plans currently underway in a Q&A session. Rachel Black also had the opportunity to speak at a Coding Berlin Meetup on August 27th. She continued her outreach by introducing the Lisk SDK and walking the audience through the Lisk Bills PoC application. When she was done speaking, a Q&A session focused on interoperability, custom transactions, and use cases for Lisk. Many of those present were also present at the Lisk Alpha SDK workshop the following day.

Jan Hackfeld, Head of research wrapped up Lisk’s speaking events at the end of Blockchain Week on August 29, discussing consensus algorithms and incentives at Humboldt University’s blockchain meetup.